--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Whitney, Orson F. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 19 number: 3 published: 1916-01 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Orson F. Whitney, "Blessings from the Tragedies of Life," *Improvement Era* 19, no. 3 (January 1916): 200–201.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1903unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1903unse start_page: 200 end_page: 201 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1916-01) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1903unse publication_year: 1916 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1916, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Blessings from the Tragedies of Life Blessings from (he Tragedies of Life BY ORSON F. WHITNEY, OF THE COUNCIL OF THETWELVE Out of the tragedies of life issue our greatestblessings. There is compensation for every ca-lamity. Not more surely does day follow night,than does joy succeed sorrow, and blessing followblighting. The whole history of our race provesthis to be true. Events that man considers hisgreatest misfortunes, turn to good, and producebenefits in the Lord's due time. What could have been more calamitous, froma human point of view, than the fall of our firstparents, Adam and Eve? It brought death intothe world. There was no death upon this planettill then, no pain, no sorrow. By the fall, thesemisfortunes—if we may call them so—came uponthe human family. But was it an unmixed evil?Did anything else result but sorrow, pain andtrouble? The natural man would answer, No,nothing else. We are not dependent upon man,however, when we face this solemn problem. There has been an enlightenment from onHigh. Our heavenly Father has sent knowledgeinto the world, explaining away the misfortune,the calamity, and has made plain to those whobelieve in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the fallof man was necessary ; that by means of it thehuman race took a mighty stride forward—adownward step, yet a step upward, in the greatmarch toward the goal of eternal life. Adam himself recognized this fact; Eve, his wife, rec-ognized it, and it has crystalized into a doctrinewhich the Latter-day Saints accept as divine:"Adam fell that man might be, and man is thathe might have joy." Just as the thorn and the rose spring from thesame stem, so joy and sorrow blend in mortal life ;the bitter and the sweet are both essential to com-plete the round of human experience. Death hasits mission, as well as life, and it is by contrastthat we learn to appreciate. If there were nonight, we could not appreciate the day; if therewere no death, we would not know the value northe significance of life eternal. The fall of Adam and Eve was a terribletragedy, but a wonderful blessing came from it;spirits became souls with opportunities for end-less advancement. Then followed the tragedy of the crucifixion,a calamity so awful that the Savior's own disci-ples turned away hopeless, saying: "We trustedthat it was He who would redeem Israel," andthey went back to their nets sad and disconsolate.But in that very hour, when it seemed as if Christhad been defeated, there was achieved the great-est victory the world has ever known. What anote of triumph rings through the announcementof the risen Savior to his commissioned Apostles :"All power is given me in heaven and on earth.Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizingthem in the name of the Father, and of the Son,and of the Holy Ghost." "And lo, I am withyou alway, even unto the end of the world!"